Wide open road
by Mrstrentreznor
Summary: BD, AU - What if the wolves made one last attempt to change her mind before the wedding? The Cullens can't see them if Jake is with her. Would his return a day early, make all the difference?


**Wide open road.**

Photo prompt 27 from the truly anon twific contest – a night road - the odometer lit and the view over the dash down the empty road. Yes, I am still writing one shots for that set of photo prompts. I am challenging myself to write a one shot for all the prompts. Lol. First off I thought of NM when Bella promised to run away with Jake. But audreyii's postcards is so perfect, www. fanfiction s/5880571/1/Postcards I left that idea alone. It's a modern car, not B's truck. What if the wolves made one last attempt to change her mind before the wedding? The Cullens can't see them if Jake is with her.

_Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute and that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods._

_Thanks to BanSidhe for betaing._

**Wide open road.**

Bella had just been incredibly embarrassed at the gas station. Driving, well, trying to drive this obscenely expensive, super ridiculous tank proof car that Edward had insisted she drive before she was changed. Her 'before' car. He had already bought her 'after' car but it was hidden under a tarpaulin in the garage. She was a little annoyed that she didn't get to choose her own car. She didn't even know what model the tank proof beast was when two guys asked if they could take a photo of the car; not her, of course, just the car.

It was a Mercedes Guard they told her reverently. She could care less.

It cost about half a million dollars she heard one say. She must be 'somebody', he suggested.

She wanted to snort. She wasn't anybody. She wondered idly how much the other car cost.

She wanted her red truck back. She wanted Jake back. He was still running. Still so upset and so angry about the wedding. Edward had sent him a wedding invitation rather than wait for her to tell him what they had decided to do. Not that it was really her decision. It seemed that all her decisions were made for her lately.

She tried to start the car and then stalled it at the traffic lights. The man from the tourist shop stared openly at her. She hated being this obvious and this visibly inept.

She steered carefully towards the Cullen house, where she virtually lived, now. The houses thinned out and forest fringed the road.

She was stopped at a warning sign, STOP. Right next to the poster from Jake.

She knew Jake was not lost, but Charlie didn't. He had driven himself crazy posting up 'have you seen this boy?' posters all over town and he had also sent them to the other Police regions. Billy refused to help him, refused to tell him the truth and the two were at loggerheads again. It was a long time since they had been fishing together.

The ripples from her decision flowed ever outward.

She had been building bridges with her mother as well. They were close; they had always been close, and Edward had sent her a wedding invitation as well. Again, before Bella got to speak to her. Renee was very upset. She felt bad enough about driving Bella away to Forks in the first place, and she had never really supported marriage as an institution. Phil had insisted on theirs. For her daughter to be eighteen and getting married straight out of school was a major issue for her. "Are you pregnant?" her mother had asked her. She assured her that she had never even had sex. The snort that her mother gave annoyed Bella more.

"Have I taught you nothing? Why on earth would you get married without having sex, first? He could be terrible in bed."

"Mom!" she was horrified.

It was unlikely that he would be; he read minds. He should know all about sex. Not that he seemed that interested in it. Or her. Physically, you know. She wasn't completely innocent; she knew you could do a lot of things without actually having sex.

She sighed.

She had the forbidden thought. Was she doing the right thing?

She had a full tank of gas. And she had a wedding to attend tomorrow. Her wedding. The car behind her beeped its horn and then gave up when she panicked and stalled _again_, and drove around her.

And she wasn't sure that she wanted to do it.

The door flung open and an enormous half naked, russet skinned boy slid into the seat. She hadn't worked out which of the hundred buttons locked the doors.

"Whoa this car smells like money."

"Quil?"

"Bells. **Just drive.** Neat! I've always wanted to say that, along with 'follow that car!'"

"I am not driving anywhere until you tell me what you are doing."

"I'm a black spot."

She raised an eyebrow.

He rolled his eyes. "I block the pixie vamp visions, right?"

Oh. "Right." She sounded doubtful.

"So you can talk to someone."

"Someone?"

"Jake," he whispered.

"She can't hear you," she whispered back. "Jake? Really?"

And then she froze as the implications hit her.

"I-I c-can't."

"Shit, Bells. You have to drive to him. Come on. You can do it."

"I can't Quil. It's this stupid car."

"V12 huh?"

"I don't know," she almost screeched at him.

Quil's usually happy face looked murderous. "Bells. This has to stop!" he announced it, as if it was up to him.

"I can't. It just keeps rolling on like some enormous snowball that gets bigger and bigger and catches up everyone it rolls over and I **can't** stop it."

"Of course, you can. You just need to get away from them for a while. So that you can breathe and clear your head."

"With a wolf boy."

He shrugged. "Yeah. Need one near you twenty four seven. We all thought that you would vote for Jake."

"And he is back?"

"Yeah. Once we told him the plan, he came running."

"Who thought this plan up?"

"It was Leah."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She thinks you need to get away from him. She thinks he messes with your head."

She didn't need to be told which 'him' that was. Wait a second… "What?"

"Not like he is brainwashing you or anything but that the vamp venom affects you. It actually **does** mess with your head. That's how they work, you know."

"My head is clear. This is my decision." She hoped she sounded convinced of that.

"Huh. Embry said you'd say that."

"Gah. Stop it!" She hated the thought that she was a topic of discussion for the wolf pack. "So what was Embry's solution?"

"He said to tell you that it was one night with Jake before your wedding. Your best friend that you have missed for weeks. That guy."

"His last chance," she muttered sadly.

"Yeah. You kind of owe him."

"Why did they send you, Quil?"

"I said that I thought we got on. You picked me up that day and you were nice. Before he got back again."

She sighed. She knew she was different when Edward was around. She had noticed it herself. She'd get angry with his actions and then be unable to say it when she got near him. She had thought it was his overwhelming beauty. Was it the actual venom?

"The venom works like that?"

"Yeah. I reckon it just makes it too easy for them."

She heard an echo of Edward's voice. _Everything about me invites you in. _Holy crow. He'd even **told** her that.

"All right. Tell me where to drive." She had made her decision.

"I can't drive?" Quil asked hopefully.

"No. And put your seatbelt on."

"Fuck's sake, Bells, this car can survive mortar attacks."

"You say that now, but you'll need it when I fling you into the dash."

After a few miles Quil begged to be able to drive and Bella let him. She sat curled up in the enormous passenger seat with her legs tucked up underneath her and her nails in her mouth.

Quil kept giving her worried glances. The specially modified air suspension had no problems with the rougher road and Quil drove the car better than she did. They pulled off onto a side road and a pack of dark skinned people appeared seamlessly from the forest.

"Oh, fuck. You let him drive," wailed Jared. He had clearly lost a bet with Embry.

She only had eyes for the tallest of them. He looked dishevelled, his hair matted and grungy, his flesh hanging on his bones.

"Jake," she breathed.

And then she was running. She was out of the car and her feet were moving as fast as she could make them. She ran to him and he scooped her up; crushing her to his chest. Her feet swinging off the ground. He held her until he had taken at least three or four breaths and then he placed her carefully back down onto the ground.

"Bells."

"You look awful." She had forgotten how tall he was. She had to crane up to look at him.

"Thanks. I came straight here."

She wrinkled her nose. Now he mentioned it, he stank.

"First stop is a motel, with a shower," he suggested.

"I can pay," she chirped.

"Not with a credit card," said Embry. "Cash, Bella."

Of course.

"And give me your phone, Bella. I reckon they have you lo-jacked," Embry added.

Jake drove now. The sun was setting as they headed to a motel.

The Cullens tracked down the two guys who had taken a photo of the car and loaded it onto their Facebook page. No, she was alone, they assured them. Alice was blind and frustrated.

Edward sat on the sofa giving off waves of despair. "It's the wolves," he accused.

"Perhaps," Carlisle conceded. "I suggest we send her a message and say we will wait for her response."

"The phone is at La Push. She might be there," Alice said. "We could call Billy Black?"

"I'd rather not accuse the wolves without actual knowledge of their involvement."

"If Alice's visions are blocked it must be them," Jasper suggested.

"They won't hurt her," Rosalie suggested.

"I thought you hated them," Edward spat at her.

Rosalie looked annoyed. "I don't hate them. They are alive. I envy them."

Emmett shushed her before she said anything else provocative.

Esme sat next to Edward and embraced him. "They won't hurt her."

"So why did they take her?"

No one could answer him. He could read all their minds in any case. They all thought the wolves wanted her to change her mind about the marriage.

"I can't see her now, but her future is still set," Alice said.

"Is Jake back?" Jasper asked.

"I haven't heard anything, but that would make sense," Carlisle said.

"Was he coming back for the wedding?" Esme asked.

"She was hoping…" Edward fell silent. Like his runaway bride. No messages.

"Don't break that phone," Emmett warned.

"And don't go near the treaty line, Edward," Carlisle stated. "I believe it would be sensible of you to stay in the house." It would be disastrous if Edward raged through La Push looking for Bella. It would mean war.

Edward moved upstairs at vampiric speed and threw himself on the ornate cast iron bed decorated with roses that he had bought for her. He had crushed one to demonstrate his strength. He felt like crushing them all now. He buried his face in the bedding and inhaled her. His singer. His bride.

His bride was sitting on the toilet. The lid was down. Jake insisted that she stay close. She wasn't sure that sitting in the bathroom while he showered was strictly necessary, but she didn't argue. She had insisted on the shower, so it seemed fair.

She looked at the piece of paper that Embry had written Edward's number on for her. As if she didn't know it off by heart? She shoved it back in her pocket.

She made a startled squeak noise when Jake emerged from behind the shower curtain, tossing his wet hair back and wrapping a towel low around his hips. His hair had grown long in the wild and now brushed his shoulders.

Holy crow. Edward didn't have muscles like that. The weight he had lost made them stand out in stark definition.

"I like your hair long," she blurted out, before she thought about it.

"I'll never cut it again," he rashly promised.

His head lifted as if he had heard something. "Pizza."

He answered the door in the towel and paid with more cash. The pack must have drained their coffers today.

"I'll pay them back."

Jake sighed. "Yeah. I owe them, too."

They sat on the bed and ate pizza. Jake still had the towel on. His back against the headboard and his long legs stretched out. He was showing a whole lot of thigh. He devoured a whole pizza and then patted his stomach happily.

Bella nibbled at her piece without enthusiasm.

Jake frowned at her. "No appetite, huh?"

"I get stressed and I can't eat."

"You look pretty thin."

"You too."

He nodded.

She looked at him on the bed. "The last time I saw you on a bed you were all broken and bandaged."

Jake looked serious. "Yeah and then you broke me some more."

She fiddled nervously with her hands. "I am sorry." She hadn't wanted to get this serious this fast; it just happened sometimes with her and Jake.

"You love me, Bells. I know you do. But if you don't choose me, that's fine. But please don't choose death. Leave us both. I'd rather you were really dead than one of them."

She gasped a little. "You'd rather I was dead?"

"Yep. At least it would be a real death."

She looked stricken.

"Think about it, Bells. If you become a newborn vampire and you bite someone… then I'd have to kill you." He whispered the last part.

She was so selfish. "I never thought about that… surely the Cullens would make sure I didn't bite anyone?"

"Newborns, Bells. They are freakishly strong. We saw that in the battle. Remember? One broke half the bones in my body. Do you really think the Cullens could stop you?"

"Edward doesn't want to turn me; it's my choice. I want it." She had never told Jake that before; now it just blurted out.

"You want to be a dead thing? Are you nuts?"

She realised his body was held so tightly that he was vibrating. He was trying to hold on. "I love him, too, Jake."

He sighed in a whoosh of emotion and air. "Too," he repeated.

She put her face in her hands. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"Please, Bells. Please."

He touched her and in an instant she was bound up in his arms; his warm strong arms. So different to Edward's; she needed quilts to cuddle Edward. She could feel his heart beating. Beating hard with his nerves and his anxiety.

"I'm always hurting you," she whispered, "And I don't want to."

"You want to marry _him_. You can't expect me to be happy about that."

He wouldn't let her go and she didn't want to go. This was her last night. Her last night before she lost herself altogether and became Mrs Edward Cullen. Before she lost everything else: the breath in her lungs, the beat of her heart, the colour in her cheeks, her family, her ability to have a child of her own and eventually her humanity.

"When?" Jake asked.

She knew what he meant. When was she going to be turned? "After the honeymoon."

He snorted. "So what are you going to do on your honeymoon? Play chess?"

She was annoyed. "No, of course not. I intend to have a perfectly normal honeymoon."

"With a vampire?"

She tried to pull away from Jake but he wasn't letting her go, now. His hands gripped the top of her arms with painful intensity.

"J-Jake," she whimpered.

He actually threw her away from him. She bounced on the bed before she put her hands down to stabilise her body. He rose to his feet alarmingly fast and started stalking up and down the hotel room. His hands moved jerkily as he tried to get his agitated body back under control.

He muttered loud enough for her to hear it. "You aren't nuts, you're _**insane**_. He's a vampire - a super strong vampire and you want to have sex with him? He'll just tear you apart and then you'll be really dead."

She wanted to defend her fiancé. "He's used to handling delicate things. He can play the piano," she tried.

"You're not a piano! He can't fix you if he breaks you! And what if you bleed? Are you a virgin?"

"Jake," she reprimanded.

"Are you?" he insisted.

"Of course I am and so is he."

"Fuck! He's a virgin too? Are you kidding me?"

Now she was annoyed again. "What's it to you?" She slid across the motel bed and stood.

"He doesn't know anything!" he took a step towards her. "He's never even had sex. Can he say how he will behave? What if he loses it? And if you bleed, Bells? Your blood… your special, super nice smelling blood?"

"He promised he wouldn't hurt me." She took a step towards him.

"I'm sure he will be really upset. He'll cry like a toddler breaking a toy." Jake made a hand movement as if he was snapping a branch.

"I am **not** a toy."

"My point, exactly." He glared at her.

"Well… how would you know? You're sixteen."

He laughed in her face. He was close enough to do it now.

She blinked. "Y-you're not a virgin?"

"Of course not. You rejected me and I went straight out and found someone who didn't turn me down."

"Oh, Jake." She backed away from him but he followed her. "Who? Who was it?" she asked.

"What do you care? You didn't want me. What was the point of saving myself for you?"

"You were waiting for me?"

"Of course I was. I love you. But then you told me that you chose him."

"So it was somebody local?"

He frowned at her. "You kissed me the way you did on that mountain and then … nothing." He made a cutting gesture with his hand.

She remembered that kiss. Oh, dear god, did she remember that kiss. Edward had never kissed her like that. Whenever she kissed him she stopped breathing. She heard an echo of Quil telling her that vampire venom affected her body. Shit! Was he right?

"You told me you chose him," Jake said. "You came over to my house when I thought you were going to tell me that you chose me… and y-you didn't."

"I know." Her heart broke all over again at how distressed he sounded.

"What did you expect me to do?" He looked so distraught.

"Nothing. You're not mine. I can't tell you who you can sleep with, but neither can you," she argued.

"I don't care who you fuck!" He waved his arm in frustration. "You can fuck Mike Newton for all I care. I just care if that act will kill you or not."

"Mike Newton?" Bella almost screeched at him. "Having sex with **him** might kill me."

Jake's face was in her face. He was leaning over her and then, suddenly he snorted and he smiled and then he laughed out loud. She tried not to but she did the same. They laughed and laughed.

He hugged her again. Her mind put her straight back into her bedroom when he had come to her so distressed and he had ended up comforting her. She also remembered that she had offered to run away with him.

"We're running away," she whispered into his skin. "Just for tonight."

"Yeah. But I can talk now." A pause. "Bet you wish I couldn't."

She snorted again.

He rocked her a little and her hand stroked his naked back.

"You said you'd run away with me, before. That night when I came to apologise for trying to dump you. I have never forgotten that offer. You didn't even know what I was running from, and you would have done it. Left Charlie and everything." He hugged her harder. "I could run away with you, now. If you wanted," Jake offered.

"I can't run away from vampires and werewolves. They're too fast for me."

"I'd carry you. You could ride me like a pony."

"Oh, Jake." She pulled her head back and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

They both froze.

Staring at each other.

His eyes. She could have drowned in his eyes.

She was suddenly incredibly aware that all there was between her and a naked Jake was a tiny hotel towel. His arms cradled her; one holding her hips against him and the other across her back supporting her as she leaned back and he bowed over her.

She wanted to kiss him again. She wanted to see if that kiss on the mountain had been a fluke.

Jake who had always been able to read her mind, knew it. "Kiss me again."

She did.

And it all came flooding back; the heat, the searing burning of his hands on her, his lips so soft and yet so forceful, his incredible strength as he held her firmly against him. And now she could feel his reaction to her. She gasped.

"We can't," she whispered.

"Do you love me?"

"Yes," unhesitant.

"Give me this one night. We don't have to actually have sex."

She had thought that before; so much you could do without having sex.

"Please, Bells. Let me love you and then I'll let you go."

She didn't answer him. She just tore the towel away and pressed her lips back on his.

He made a noise; it sounded joyful and then she was in his arms, her feet off the floor and she was being lowered onto the bed. His big hands almost tore her clothes off. She tried to help him and they got in each other's way. They laughed at each other's urgency.

"Let me," she said. She slid her shirt from her shoulders but he couldn't resist touching her. His big hands encased her breasts. She could feel the heat through her bra. He pushed it up her chest and then his lips locked around her nipple. His hands undid the clasp.

"You **do** know what you're doing." She chuckled.

She felt him smile. And then his hands were pulling her out of her jeans and her underwear went with them. She learnt that he really did know what he was doing. His mouth searched out her inner places. Her first orgasm caught her completely off guard. She had never felt anything like it before. Her entire vocab became two words, Jake and yes.

He was extremely careful to only slide one long finger inside her. But one was all she needed. Her body jack-knifed with the force of her next orgasm. Her fingers clenched in his hair pulling it hard enough to hurt.

She recovered her breath and then she wanted to touch him. She held him in her hands and marvelled at the odd beauty of his genitals. Part of her was glad that Jake was the first naked man she had ever seen, but he did set the bar pretty damn high.

She had no idea whether he was large or small but he seemed in proportion to his height. She crouched over him as he lay on his back and she rubbed her hands over him. He felt so hard and so hot. She stroked him. Just her touch on him made him groan with pleasure.

He searched out her lips and as his tongue plunged into her mouth, his cock jerked in her hands and they were both covered in his hot ejaculate. She started to fade from the Cullens' future as Jake effectively marked her as his.

They stripped the coverlet and lay on the sheets together. His arms around her. Her legs wrapped around him. Their foreheads touching. Inhaling each other.

"Jake?"

"Bells."

"I want you. I want all of you."

His eyes were serious. "For now?"

"No. Forever."

"You're sure?" he checked. She couldn't blame him.

"Yes."

"I can do forever," he said.

"We should celebrate," she hinted.

He grinned at her. Again, reading her mind. "We'll need condoms. You aren't on the pill?"

"No."

"There must be a vending machine nearby." He kissed her quickly. Threw on a pair of borrowed athletic shorts and dashed out the door. He put the privacy bar across so that the door didn't lock him out.

Bella lay there, naked. She drew the top sheet up to cover her body.

She squirmed luxuriantly on the sheets. She felt amazing. Her body felt alive, her mind clear, her resolve set for the first time in ages. Even that very morning she had doubts about the wedding and that obscene car. Now, she felt right. She knew this was the right path.

And she knew something that Jake, in his eagerness had forgotten.

Alice could see her now. She reached down and slid off her engagement ring. She placed it on the side table.

She spoke aloud. "I'm sorry Edward. I had my doubts but I just couldn't express them. I think the venom does affect me; more than I realised. I love him. I choose Jake."

Alice wailed in the house and Edward crushed the bed head as he read her mind.

She was gone.

When Jake got back he looked triumphant. He slid his athletic shorts down and pounced on her on the bed. She laughed with delight.

He stood up. A foot planted on either side of her legs, his cock hanging heavily between. His head almost touching the ceiling. She couldn't resist. Her hand reached for him. She caressed his cock as he looked down at her possessively.

"Mine," he said.

"Mine," she replied.

He grinned. "You can have all of it."

He reduced her vocab to just one word, Jake.

FF_2154210_2110235025 - 5/11/2012 8:10:00 AM


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